One South African soldier was killed and 13 others were wounded in combat with the M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Friday, May 31.

The fighting happened on Thursday in Sake, a key town in North Kivu province, the SANDF said in statement, adding that the injured soldiers had been "evacuated to Goma Hospital and are recuperating.”

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The statement added that two of the South African army’s armoured personnel carriers (APC) had been damaged during the battle.

South African soldiers are part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional force fighting alongside the Congolese army coalition.

The coalition also includes Burundian forces, and militias such as the FDLR, a terrorist group linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, as well as youth groups known as Wazalendo.

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M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said that four civilians were killed in the Thursday fighting, and blamed the government coalition for "indiscriminate bombings” in "densely populated areas” of Kilorirwe, Mushaki, Bweremana and Sake.

In December 2023, South Africa deployed 2,900 soldiers as part of the SADC force sent to DR Congo’s conflict-hit region to fight the M23 rebels.

The South African army has since lost at least five soldiers.

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South African opposition parties criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for approving the deployment of troops to the conflict-ridden eastern DR Congo, saying the SANDF had no capacity to fight the M23.

The South African government has also been criticised for deploying troops to fight alongside the Congolese government coalition, which includes the FDLR, a UN-sanctioned terrorist group founded by remnants of the perpetrators of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

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The M23 rebels accuse the coalition of carrying out genocide against Congolese Tutsi communities. The SADC deployment raised fears that the eastern DR Congo conflict, which has also affected relations between Rwanda, DR Congo and Burundi, could widen into a regional crisis.

Eastern DR Congo is home to more than 200 armed groups and has been volatile for three decades. Multiple interventions have failed to end the decades of violence.